Friday, February 17, 2012

Busy doin' a whole lot of nothin'

Bad weather these past couple of days... Haven't tackled the issues that came up with the A-10 Warthog the other day. Everything worked but the motors didn't make a peep... something between the receiver and the ESCs most likely. Not likely to be the motors. Taking a look at those later.

I think one of the reasons I keep stripping gears on the HDX 500se is that on some hard landings the tail blade strike the ground. This can stall the main gear and that can account for the stripped teeth. I decided to put a wheel on it, but I may make it a skid. I used a piece of control rod, put a Z-bend in it and ran it through a hole at the bottom of the tail skid, the rod running up the tail skid and secured to it with a couple of wide plastic wire ties. Not sure I am fond of the wheel.

I broke out the Frankenheli. I had it set up with a longer boom and 365mm blades, a stretch 450. I flew her several times, but I just could not get the blades to track. I even took the head apart and redid the feathering shaft, still could not no matter what I did. I decided to drop back to standard 325mm blades, and she tracks well. Not sure what was up with that.

The $10 Assan MEMS gyro I trialed is a piece of crap. I had to crank the gain up to 100% (real 100%), and now she has a quick tail wag. If I drop the gain down the wag period drops, but is wider. I even tried down to 15% where she wouldn't hold her head, and the wag persisted. I rechecked all the programming and its correct. I will likely put a good gyro on her and if I bend the outrage boom I'll make her a regular 450. I will be keeping the regular 450 blades on her. Grounded until I get a new gyro.

Still no news from Hobby King on a new canopy... I suspect they will just wait until I go away. I will probably have to buy a replacement plane for parts... crap. No more planes that don't have replacement parts available.

About Me

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. ~ Bertrand Russell